Skip to main content

North Korea Confirms First COVID Outbreak

North Korea has confirmed its first COVID-19 death, and says hundreds of thousands of people have “fever”, in the first indication of the scale of the outbreak in its largely unvaccinated population.

The nuclear-armed country announced on Thursday its first coronavirus outbreak since the pandemic began, moving into lockdown after it said people in the capital, Pyongyang, tested positive for the Omicron variant.

“A fever whose cause couldn’t be identified explosively spread nationwide from late April,” the official Korean Central News Agency said on Friday.

“Six persons died (one of them tested positive for the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron),” it added.

About 350,000 people have shown signs of “fever”, while 187,800 people are being treated in isolation, according to KCNA.

Experts worry North Korea’s health system will be unable to cope with spread of COVID in an unvaccinated population, they also  believe the virus has been present in the country for some time, the authorities only announced the first cases on Thursday.

North Korea rejected offers from the international community to supply millions of AstraZeneca and Chinese-made jabs last year. Instead, it claimed it had controlled Covid by sealing its borders early in January 2020.

Many North Koreans are also in poor health as a result of food shortages and malnutrition, making it more difficult for their immune systems to fight the disease.

A 2019 study ranked North Korea 193 out of 195 countries in its capability to cope with a healthcare crisis.

Source:Aljazeera and CNN

Comments

  1. Wow! They must act fast to stop the virus from spreading.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is serious.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Type your comments here

Popular posts from this blog

Nadia Mohammed-First Somali-American Elected Mayor

Two months after making history as America's first Somali-American elected mayor by voters, 27-year-old Nadia Mohamed is sworn in as mayor. Nadia Mohammed  She was sworn in at the city council of St. Louis Park in the US state of Minnesota. Ms Mohamed secured 58% of the vote to win last November's mayoral poll. Nadia Mohammed is the youngest and the first Muslim and black elected mayor in the city, whose family moved to Minnesota from Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp when she was 10, after fleeing war in Somalia. Her family migrated to Kenya after the civil war in Somalia, and she lived in the Kakuma refugee camp until she was about 10. "Well, my identity is one part of my story, right? I am proud of everything that I am, but I don't want that to be the only story. I don't want that to [be] where people stop their conversation," Ms Mohamed told Minneapolis-based KARE TV station after her election. She has listed public safety and affordable housing as some of t...

Breaking! Nigerians, Meet Your Ministers, And Their Portfolios

The newly appointed ministers were administered portfolios by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Please see the list of Ministers and their portfolios below: LIST: Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani Minister of State, Environment and Ecological Management, Ishak Salaco  Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Wale Edun Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Bunmi Tunji Minister of Power, Adedayo Adelabu Minister of State, Health and Social Welfare, Tunisia Alausa Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake Minister of Tourism, Lola Ade-John Minister of Transportation, Adegboyega Oyetola Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Doris Anite Minister of Innovation Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Nkiruka Onyejeocha Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy Minister of Works, David Umahi Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo Minister of Youth, Abubakar Momoh Min...

Philip Shaibu Pleads For Forgiveness - Forgive, Says The Deputy Governor of Edo State, To His Governor

Thursday in Benin City, Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu appealed to Governor Obaseki to forgive and forget their differences.        Governor Godwin Obaseki and His Deputy Philip Shaibu  An embattled  Shaibu, begged his principal, Governor Godwin Obakeki, for forgiveness over their political differences. While addressing journalists he said: "I use this medium to appeal to Mr Governor, if there is anything that I don’t know that I have done, please forgive me so that we can develop our state together,” he said. "We have just one year to go. We have been the envy of the entire country. So Mr Governor, if there is anything you feel that I have done, please I am sorry. I need us to work together to finish well and strong.” On whether he had resumed at his new office, the Deputy Governor replied; “We have resumed but there is still a lot of work to be done there. “There is no problem about it. The governor has asked us to go there. Like I have alway...